One-Punch Man (ワンパンマン Wanpanman) is a franchise created by ONE. The webcomic started in July 2009, with more than 10 million views and 20,000 hits per day. Shueisha's Young Jump Next picked up the series after Yusuke Murata contacted ONE and proposed to redraw the comic for digital publication as well.

The first chapter of the manga was published on June 14, 2012.[5] The manga series began publication in Viz Media's Weekly Shonen Jump (Shonen Jump Alpha at the time) in North America on January 21, 2013.[6] The first digital volume was released in February 2014.[7] The manga was released for print in the United States starting on the 1st of September, 2015.[8]

Contents

The story follows the life of an average hero named Saitama who manages to win all of his fights with just one punch. This ends up being the cause of a lot of frustration as he no longer feels the thrill and adrenaline he once felt in battle. After all, what's so good about having overwhelming power?

The manga adaptation of One-Punch Man is illustrated by Yusuke Murata and written by ONE. While generally following the plot points established in the original webcomic, the manga contains artwork of higher quality, new arcs, redrawn scenarios and bonus content added by ONE's choice. The manga is published by Shueisha's Young Jump Next and has several volumes to its name.

The anime adaption of the manga starring Makoto Furukawa as Saitama is animated by the Japanese studio Madhouse and is directed by Shingo Natsume (Space Dandy, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos) and features character designs by Chikashi Kubota. VIZ Media manages the master license for distributing One-Punch Man in North America, Latin America and Oceania, as well as streaming of the series in the U.S.

A second season of One-Punch Man is planned. The studio animating the second season will be J.C.Staff instead of Madhouse who did the first season. Viz Media has officially secured rights for the second season. The second season is currently slated to start airing April 2019.

In November 2013, it was announced that the manga adaptation of One-Punch Man has over 2.2 million copies in print.[9] By May 2014, 3.4 million copies were in print. In November 2014, the manga had 4.5 million copies in circulation.[10] In a publication of the August sale in 2015, One-Punch Man surpassed 5.8 million copies. By July 2017, there were 13 million copies in print.[11] As of April 4, 2018, the manga had 15 million copies in print.[12]

Once released in the United States, both the first and second volumes debuted on the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list, at first and second place, respectively, and stayed there for two weeks. Volume one dropped to second place for the third week, while volume two fell off the list altogether. Volume one was still on the list for the fourth week. The series was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2015.